Language Explorer, FLEx, FieldWorks – why so many names?

FieldWorks is the name of the suite of programs. Language
Explorer is one program in that suite. FLEx is Language Explorer’s nickname,
derived from its full name FieldWorks Language Explorer.

What help or training materials are available?

Yes, there is an integrated help file. This is available on the Help menu,
top item (Language Explorer). Alternatively, you can access context appropriate
help topics in dialog boxes via the Help button. Further, all fields have
a help link in their context menu.

In addition, there are some other materials to help you get started. These
are also available the Help menu:

Demo movies: these give you an overview of the main features of Language
Explorer. Available online too.

Resource documents: these are more in-depth, technical help on specific
topics (such as lexicography, morphological parsing, import, writing systems).

Training materials: these give you a step-by step, illustrated guide through
the basic features of the program.

Finally, for technical support staff, there are documents written by the lead
developer. These can be accessed online.

Will this run on my computer?

Recommended system configuration

Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
with Service Pack 3 or higher. It also works on the Linux O/S

Minimum system requirements

Hard disk: Hard disk space requirements will vary depending on existing machine configuration, project size, and custom installation choices. In a typical worst case scenario, 1.5 gigabytes are required for installation,
with a further 300 megabytes required to run the program once installed.
This can be reduced by deselecting features from the FieldWorks installer
wizard. If required supporting software is already present (for example,
the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0), the required disk space is reduced. However,
if upgrading from an earlier version of FieldWorks, even more space could
be required, if you have large amounts of data (more than a few tens of
megabytes).

3 Responses to “FAQ”

where do I find a program that will help me produce a trilingual (English/Indonesian/Hatam) dictionary? what size program is this? Windows Vista is installed on this computer. SIL’s Fieldworks was suggested to me by Dr Bruce Hooley in Australia and since then my grandaughter & husband studying at GIAL, but where to find it on line, but I can’t determine from all the on-line data just where I start.

Hi Richard,
Flex will definitely help you create a trilingual dictionary. I’m not sure exactly how you want your dictionary to look, but, basically you need to create a lexicon that has all three lnguages (2 as vernacular, 1 as analysis or whatever). Then configure your dictionary to display what you want to see. I suggest you use version 7.1.1 since it allows more configueration options in your dictionary. That is on the Beta download site. You will need the full version of Flex since you are using Vista; either the SE (329 MB) or BTE (340 MB) version. If you need more help, the help options are quite extensive or feel free to contact me via email; flex_devteam@sil.org.
Ann

Just to clarify in case others come here by searching on this topic. What most FLEx users probably mean by “trilingual dictionary” is: “one vernacular language in the main dictionary, followed by two analysis languages as indexes / finder lists”. Truly having multiple vernaculars is not currently feasible–that is, we do not mean that each section of the bilingual or trilingual dictionary is equally “thick” or comprehensive.

A FLEx project is really only oriented around one vernacular language, although it’s quite easy to add multiple analysis languages (such as English, Indonesian, and more). But these are basically just used for defining the one vernacular language, translating its examples, and providing finder indexes pointing back to those vernacular entries. Only the one vernacular can have Example fields, etc.

To create a truly “equal-thickness” bilingual dictionary like the “English-Spanish / Spanish-English” dictionaries that are widely available, you would need to create two completely separate and redundant FLEx projects. (Trilingual would require three projects.)